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30 Days of Blogging, Day 27

My sourdough turned out!! From the starter that was born two weeks ago, yesterday we had dough, and today we have bread.

The process was stressful because it was my first try and I didn’t want to F it up. But now that I’ve done it, I can’t wait to make another loaf. It just takes a little planning, and in my case, a babysitter… I started making the dough when Avery was in daycare in the morning, but by the time I needed to knead she was home and napping. Of course she woke up half way through the kneading process and whined, tugging at my legs, for the last 5 minutes before I could set it aside again.

It literally took an entire day, from 9am until 9pm to finish making the dough, even though its just a mix of starter, flour and water. There’s a lot of proofing, folding, waiting, flipping, kneading, and more waiting involved. Then it sat overnight in the fridge for the final proof, and took almost an hour to bake the next morning. It’s a great task for weekends, if only we weren’t away from home on so many of our weekends.

The starter was bubbly and ready to make some bread

Added flour and water to grow the starter to the amount I needed for the recipe and let double in size

After 15 minutes of kneading by hand, the dough became smooth with a taut surface

After a couple of rounds of folding the dough into itself, it spent the night lightly covered with a kitchen towel in the fridge

It baked in a preheated dutch oven for almost an hour at 430°F

I’m loving the flavour of our wild yeast, captured right here in our own home. It’s mildly sour, the crust is crispy, and the crumb inside is buttery soft and airy. Wish the internet had smell-o-vision, because it smells like heaven.

Thank you! It does take a lot of effort. I’m hoping that I can get proficient enough at it that I can casually make it on weekends without feeling too overwhelmed by it. It was totally worth the effort, in my opinion!

I love baking bread, but I’ve never done a sour bread from scratch. If you have a stand mixer, it works great at kneading for you, I just do the final bits of kneading and shaping by hand, it’s so much easier!

Thanks! I don’t know for sure, but I’ve heard that the taste can vary with the yeast you get, so starter made in different environments tastes different. Also, I heard that the longer you proof it for, the more sour it tastes – a 4 hour rise on the counter leads to a more mild bread than the 12 or even 24 hour rise in the fridge. Good luck on your next try! I have a lot of things I want to improve on when I make my next loaf.